On Second Thought: Giddyup, Let’s Go (Steelers)

Playing on the road in winter conditions can be too much, even for heavily favored teams performing at their best.

Napoleon was on a big winning streak when he took on the Czars in a big road game in Moscow. The weather, as they say, was a factor. The Czar’s field generals, General Mud, General Frost, and General Snow wore down the plucky little Corsican. The home team won the battle in the trenches, and humiliated the heavily-favored French, sending them limping home in defeat. Tchaikowsky wrote a song about it, or something, and they still play it on the 4th of July.

Freddy von Paulus also looked unstoppable when he took his Berlin Fighting Sixers into Stalingrad for a road game in the winter of ’42. The host Stalingrad Reds withstood a strong first quarter offensive, and barely held on, until the cruel winter became the decisive advantage for the home team, especially in the trenches. They stopped the Sixth Army’s ground game, kicked their butts, and eventually cost Paulus his job.

Knowing the lessons of history, it’s obvious why many of us had fears and doubts prior to Sunday’s confrontation on a deep, dark, snowy December afternoon in Buffalo. Maybe Mike Tomlin doesn’t live in his fears, but we do. Let’s admit it. We do.

“Buffalo has the best running game in the league, by far. Their backs are unstoppable. The Steelers are weak against the run. It’s going to snow. Or maybe sleet. Ben is awful on the road. Repent. The end is near. Prepare to meet thy doom. Blah. Blah. Blah.”

Well, maybe we were right about the Ben on the Road part. But we were sure wrong about everything else.

Mike Tomlin won his 100th game as the Steelers clearly out-Buffaloed Buffalo at Buffalo in the middle of a Buffalo winter. And he became the third Steeler Coach to win 100 games, making Pittsburgh the only NFL team to have three head coaches win one hundred games. The most remarkable thing about that is those were the only three coaches we’ve had since 1969. Three in a row! Talk about a streak of winners!

Like those away games in Moscow and Stalingrad, this one was won in the trenches. The Steeler running game was unstoppable. They rang the Bell for 236 yards on the ground, another 62 on the air, and abused the hell out of the home team.

Make no mistake, this WAS your father’s Pittsburgh Steelers team. Run first. And keep running until the other team shows they can stop you. And if they can’t,`run it down their throats all day. As part of the nostalgia craze, they even brought back something called a Fullback. Even an extra lineman ‘n@.

If this was your father’s Steeler team, it certainly wasn’t the team that began the season. And that might be the biggest takeaway from yesterday’s win. Setbacks and adversity forced the coaches to make adjustments, and resulted in a better team.

The Steelers were projected to be a pass-first team this season, but they lost Bryant. They lost Coates. They lost DHB. They lost Wheaton. The receiving corps depth was gone. They also lost Pouncey and Gilbert for short periods of time to injury. Hubbard and Finney performed spectacularly as fill-ins.

When Bell returned from his suspension and Ben from his injury, the team quickly transitioned from a pass-first offense to a running team. The return of underrated blue-collar hero Rosie Nix from injury completed the transformation. They didn’t have the wideouts they thought they’d have, but they had the trench fighters. They went to war with the army they had. And won big.

With the extra lineman and the road grader Fullback, and the best all-weather running back in all of football, this is a team now built for winter weather. In the second half, Buffalo knew the Steelers were going to run on them, and there was nothing they could do to stop them. That, my friends, is what is good in life. The only thing missing was that we couldn’t hear the lamentations of their women. It was too cold, and the Buffalo gals were probably all bundled up. [Editor’s note: A nice touch, though, was B.J. Finney mentioning that he could hear the lamentations of the Buffalo linemen in the second half, as they frantically and correctly pointed out to each other where Bell was going to be coming and knew they couldn’t stop him.]

The other amazing takeaway from this game was that Ben threw three picks, had a quarterback rating smaller than his waist size (38), and yet they still won. The first two picks may not have been his fault – with wrong routes or bad routes in the snow, but the fact that his numbers were awful made no nevermind. They possessed the football 39 minutes and demolished the home team defenses.

On defense, the Steelers came out like a swarm of angry hornets and rattled Taylor early. They stopped Buffalo’s offense cold for the first 53 minutes because they were much quicker. The linebackers and DB’s were all over the line of scrimmage, and they stopped Buffalo’s heralded running game cold. There were no cutbacks.

This was a defense without Heyward and without Hargrave, but the front guys who did play were terrific, and the guys behind them – especially Shazier – played as complete a game as one could imagine. Shazier was the best player out there on defense, and Sean Davis continues to show that he was a brilliant pick in the second round.

Several years back, the Steelers were weak at LB, and they did the Panera Pick-Two, choosing Timmons and Woodley, two linebackers in the first two rounds. Bingo. This year, weak at DB, they went with Burns and Davis one and two. Two DB’s. Another jackpot. These guys are the real deal, and we saw it again yesterday.

The only other in-game observation worth noting is that it seemed the Steelers had better footing than the home town Bills. The Buffalonians were slip-slidin’ away all afternoon, with Bell and AB juking them out, and the Steeler offensive line was dumping the Buffalo defenders flat on their backs, where they could have made snow angels if they wanted to. It was almost like the visitors were playing on a different surface.

Ben gave the game ball to Mike Tomlin, and it was fitting. Not only was it his 100th NFL victory as a head coach, but this game showcased some of the decisions and adjustments Tomlin has made to turn this season around and turn this team into a powerful contender to win it all.

He and Colbert were faced with a leaky defense. They drafted three defensive players in the first three rounds, and seem to have hit the jackpot with all three. They took a big gamble and plugged them in early, staying with them through the rookie jitters, mistakes, and adjustments. The defense that was once too old and too slow and leaky as a colander in the secondary is now a strong point and still improving.

He and Haley lost their Nos. two-three-four-and five wide receivers. They were able to change course and transition from a pass-first to a run-first team, adding a fullback and extra lineman to the offensive package. Oh, and that’s adding years to Ben’s playing life and saves on his laundry bill.

Le’Veon Bell is getting all the press for his historic performance yesterday, and he certainly deserves it. He was terrific. But don’t forget the job that Mike Tomlin has done all season, and especially yesterday on the road, in the snow in Buffalo.

Napoleon held on to his job for a couple of years after his road loss in Moscow. Paulus lost his job the day after he lost to the Stalingrad Reds. And now we read that Buffalo’s home town general, Ryan, may lose his job any day now, in the wake of his defeat.

Well, Michael Pettaway Tomlin has no worries about job security. The job is his as long as he wants it. What he and his assistants and players have done this year in the face of adversity has been nothing short of remarkable.

The hope here is that Coach decides to stick around for a long time, and then, like his two predecessors, finally decides to step down to enjoy his golden years. Then, twenty-some years from now, one of Artie’s kids will pick the next Steeler head coach to win 100 games or more. Four in a row.

Good stuff! It’s so much fun to see smash mouth football from the Steelers again, although it was more like 8 yards and a cloud of snow on Sunday. Bell seemed to get even stronger as the game went on and was clearly enjoying himself as I saw him lay a gratuitous big hit on the safety before going out of bounds after a big run late in the game. You know the OL hogs were loving the opportunity to run block all day too.

As good as Bell is, the offensive line deserves a ton of credit for the Steelers success on the ground too. The “Munch Bunch” has really come into their own as you would expect with an elite position coach given plenty to work with. Whether by luck or planning or a little of both, it seems like the skills of our linemen fit very well with Bell’s running style. DeCastro and Pouncey are great at getting to the second level and Bell is great at waiting for them to get there and then working off their blocks. The ability to dominate in the trenches like this is a huge element of the Steelers success in my opinion.

With the Steelers giving us some retro ’70s football, and the Ravens going down as well, its hard to imagine a more satisfying weekend.

Roosevelt Nix. Can’t say enough for what he provided both as a blocker at fullback, as well as a couple of great tackles on special teams.

B.J. Finney. Tempting to think of him as primarily a sentimental feel good story given his path to the team. Now he is looking like a free agent steal. Hardly a weak link in subbing for Ramon Foster. My favorite play was his crushing block on Le’Veon Bell’s second touchdown run. He may be playing in this league for a long time.

Eli Rodgers and Cobi Hamilton. There contributions are small relative to others, but they have been steady and reliable. They have done bridging the gap caused by the absence/ineffectiveness of Bryant, Wheaton, Coates and Hey-Bey.

David Johnson. I have always felt that he has been a consistently underrated presence. His blocking and fourth down reception could easily be overlooked but shouldn’t.

Bell. Yes, he deserved to be on probation because of his behavior, and now he deserves to be off. Has anyone given any thought to what might have been if he had been available at this time last season? And as the world forgets so often, the value of a good running back goes up at this time of the year, in this part of the country. The value of a great running back (any arguments about that?) goes through the roof. If he stays healthy, he is going to get paid, and it should be done with joy and smiles all around, otherwise, the organization is crazy. What we have here Is a generational running back.

Artie Burns and Sean Davis. On track to being the best corner/safety tandem since Rod Woodson and Carnell Lake. Can some credit go to Kevin Colbert and the front office for these two and every other player mentioned here for that matter.

Coaching. Beyond what has already been mentioned concerning Tomlin, Munchak, etc., notice the quality of play from the likes of Bell, Dupree, Jesse James and others who were counseled to lose weight coming in from college. The departure from the heavier is better mindset is worth noting.

Talking about Burns and Davis, Cockrell is playing well too, and don’t forget we happen to have a former no 8 overall pick at CB stashed away as a developmental project. His absence on the field this year has cooled a lot of the original excitement about him, but if you’re thinking about the future there’s a good chance Justin Gilbert will be a factor in it.

Gilbert is, indeed, intriguing. Yes, he was a number eight overall pick in the draft, but remember who made that pick. They could pick a Kardashian in the first round and it wouldn’t surprise me.

It really doesn’t bother me that the Browns – with their awful team – got ride of him. They were cleaning house and starting anew. He had some issues. They already had enough problems. Buh-bye!

Gilbert looked terrific at the college level and seemed to have all the physical tools. He hasn’t worked out at the pro level. But the tools are still there. Tomlin hasn’t given him anything. He’ll have to earn his playing time, and he hasn’t so far.

Seems like a very good gamble, because of the huge upside. But, at this point, it’ll be like found money. We’re not really counting on him, so if Justin Gilbert doesn’t pan out, it’s not catastrophic. It he does, that’d be great.

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